WAUWATOSA, Wis. (WLCSports.com) - Wisconsin Lutheran College made its long-awaited 2024 debut at Neumann Family Field on Thursday, but dropped both ends of a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference doubleheader to Benedictine by scores of 10-3 and 9-7 in eight innings.
The Eagles (11-9, 4-6 NACC) used a pair of two-out run scoring hits, a solo homerun and RBI double, in each of the first two innings of game one to grab a 2-0 lead over the Warriors (6-14, 2-4 NACC). BenU tacked on three runs in the fourth and a single tally in the fifth for a six-run advantage.
WLC broke through with two runs in the bottom of the sixth when seniors
Lexi Martin (Westfield, Ind.) and
Ashley Corley (Plainfield, Ill.) came home on freshman
Alea Anhalt's (Fond du Lac, Wis.) sac fly to center. Benedictine plated its final four runs in the seventh on a pair of wild pitches and a two-run single. Wisconsin Lutheran's third and final run of the game came in the last of the seventh when senior
Kyla Elliott (Chicago, Ill.) crossed the plate on a fielding error.
The Warriors' six hits in the opener came off the bats of six different players. Anhalt had the lone RBI, while Martin, Corley, and Elliott scored runs.
WLC, which loaded the bases with one out in the opening inning, answered a pair of first-inning runs by the Eagles with a RBI single from Anhalt that drove home junior
Gwen Malecke (Gilberts, Ill.). Wisconsin Lutheran evened the game in the second when senior
Maddy Chestolowski (Appleton, Wis.) scampered home from third following an attempted swipe of second. The Warriors answered BenU's go-ahead run in the top of the third with a sac fly from freshman
Sommer Krull (New London, Wis.) that scored Anhalt and knotted the contest at 3-3.
WLC went ahead 5-3 in the fifth after Anhalt's triple to center scored Martin, and junior
Allison Powers' (Sun Prairie, Wis.) bunt single scored Anhalt for the two-run lead. Benedictine struck for four runs, three unearned, on five hits in its half of the sixth to jump back ahead 7-5. Back-to-back two-out extra base hits from Corley and Anhalt in the sixth evened the game once again at 7-7.
Following a scoreless seventh, just the second combined scoreless inning of the game, the Eagles broke the deadlock with a pair of unearned runs in the top of the eighth and Wisconsin Lutheran was retired in order in its last at-bat.
Anhalt finished 4-for-4 with three RBI and two runs in game two to lead the Warriors, who matched a season-high with 15 hits. Malecke, Powers, Chestolowski, and freshman
Madison Heller (South Milwaukee, Wis.) added two hits apiece.Â
WLC remains home at Neumann Family Field on Saturday for a 12 p.m. NACC doubleheader against Alverno (3-13, 1-9 NACC). Live coverage links can be found at WLCSports.com.
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